With a plethora of Pakistani movies, hitting the screens this Eid, it was only expected that the federal government would impose a ban on Indian films in Pakistan.
In an official notice sent by the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage to the chairman of the Pakistan Film Exhibitors Association and all others involved, Thursday, it was announced that this move was done “in order to revive, and promote the local film industry in Pakistan.”
The ban will hold true on both Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha. However, Indian films have not been banned completely and can be screened before and after Eid. According to the announcement, the films can screen till two days before Eid and two weeks after the holiday.
The Punjab Film Censor Board and Sindh Film Censor Board have also been told the same.
Federal Govt has imposed restriction on the screening of Indian movies in Pakistani cinemas on the occasion of Eid ul Fitr & Eid ul Azha. To promote local film industry, cinemas in Pakistan would not be able to screen Indian movies 2 days before & 2 weeks after the Eid days. pic.twitter.com/mkRxuL29Np
— Danyal Gilani (@DanyalGilani) May 24, 2018
Members of the Pakistani film industry had been requesting for such a ban for a long time and it appears that the officials have finally paid heed to some of their concerns, considering that Bollywood films have not been wholly banned.
Salman Khan’s Race 3 was the major Bollywood film to release this Eid. The third installment in the Race franchise, which features actors Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol and Jacqueline Fernadez alongside Khan, has been generating a lot of hype and keeping in mind that Khan has a huge fan following in Pakistan, it was predicted that the Pakistani films releasing alongside would suffer.
Among the Pakistani films releasing on Eid is Mahira Khan-Shehryar Munawar’s 7 Din Mohabbat In, Moammar Rana-Sonya Hussayn’s Azaadi and Javed Sheikh’s directorial Wajood featuring Danish Taimoor. The multi-starrer Parwaaz Hai Junoon was also expected to release this Eid, however, it has been pushed to Eid-ul-Azha given the current overcrowding of films at the box-office.
